An open collection of baseball's little-known records and curiosities.

"He would have been among the league leaders in batting average for a majority of the season had he had enough plate appearances." -- 2008 St. Louis Cardinals Media Guide about non-roster invitee Mark Johnson

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Most Plate Appearances, No Singles

Brad Nelson, 0 for 21 this year, was outrighted (booted off the 40-man roster but not released) to the minors by Milwaukee earlier this week. Since he was outrighted once before, he had the option to choose free agency rather than report to AAA. He did and has had contact from several teams. Until he signs, however, his brief major league career qualifies him for the following list:

Most Career Plate Apperances, No Singles

Name

Years

PA

H

2B

3B

HR

Bobby Tiefenauer

1952-1968

48

1

1

0

0

Randy Tate

1975

47

0

0

0

0

Bo McLaughlin

1976-1982

45

0

0

0

0

Tony McKnight

2000-2001

44

0

0

0

0

Daryl Patterson

1968-1974

37

0

0

0

0

Charlie Cady

1883-1884

36

2

1

1

0

George Borchers

1888-1895

34

2

2

0

0

Ted Davidson

1965-1968

34

0

0

0

0

Charley Stanceu

1941-1946

34

0

0

0

0

Hank Biasatti

1949

33

2

2

0

0

Andy Hassler

1971-1985

31

0

0

0

0

Brad Nelson

2008-2009

31

2

2

0

0

Sean Burnett

2004-2008

30

1

1

0

0

Skip Pitlock

1970-1975

30

2

1

0

1

As you can tell by the years each played, most of those players were pitches. Only Hank Biasatti, a first baseman for the Athletics, and Nelson were not pitchers for a significant portion of their careers. Charlie Cody started five games as a pitcher and also appeared in the outfield, second base, and catcher.

Another active position player who has struggled to single is Matthew Brown, a third baseman for the Angels. He batted 27 times in 2007 and 2008, hitting only a double. Brown is currently playing for the AAA Salt Lake Bees. Both Nelson and Brown will likely get more chances to single in the majors, so hopefully their time around this list is short.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

Pitlock's HR was inside the park. The Toy Cannon in left never moved for the gapper, he was mad at his manager, Harry the Hat Walker. Alou had to flag it down at the base of the wall, and I did not have to slide at home. I've seen longer homers!